When
the Lausanne Agreement was signed the Turkish population, including the Pomak
Turks were more in number proportionally than the Greek, Bulgarian, Armenian and
Jewish population.The Turkish
population numbered around
129,120 in
the area, and was 67% of the population. Today is 40% of the population. Despite
the fact that the rate of population increase was around 2.8%, due to constantemigration the population did not increase and the result of this is that
they became a minority in the area.

The
land ownership in Western Thrace has also dramatically changed. Whilst in 1923
the land ownership by Turks was 84%, they now only own between 20 and 40%.
Throughout the years the area has been subjected to a ruthless genocide by
Greece.

The place of western Thrace in
history

During
the period around two thousand years before Christ the first inhabitants of
Thrace were the (1) Indo-European Traks (Thracians). (2)

After
the end of the 8th century BC to the start of the 7th century BC the area was
under the sovereignty of thePeni, Ancient Greeks and Macedonians, and
until 355 BC was ruled by the Kingdom of Thrace. After that, coming under the
rule of the Empires of Rome(5) and Byzantine,(6) Western Thrace was first
included in the boundaries of the Roman (7) and after that the Byzantine
Empires. (8)

After
the conquest of these lands by The Ottoman Empire in 1354 the lands came within
the boundaries of the Ottoman Empire (9), who ruled there for 559 years.Between the years of 1913 – 1920 Western Thrace came under the occupation
of the allies. In 1923, in accordance with
the Lausanne Agreement (10) it was left to Greece.

The
first presence of Turks in Western Thrace began with the ‘Western front’ who
emigrated there from Central Asia and the İskit Turks who arrived there in the
2ndCentury. (11) It
continued with the Hun Turks in the 4th Century, (12) The Avar Turks in the 5th
Century, (13) the Patzinak Turks in the 9th Century (14) and continued with the
Kuman

(Cuman) Turks (15) in the 11th Century.

During
the 560 years that Western Thrace was part of the sovereign land of the Turks
from the 1360s till it was handed over to the Greeks by the main / big European
countries after many machinations and without firing one shot in the area, in
May 1920, no other nation was sovereign over the lands and they stayed Turkish.
Western Thrace is so Turkish that the first Independent State (16) was founded
on these lands in 1913.

On the
25th /26th January 1990, under the crescent and moon and star decorated ceiling
in thebuilding where theWestern Thrace Turkish State was declared (17)on 31st August 1913, Sadık
Ahmet (18) and İbrahim Şerif (19) were arrested , tried and sentenced to 18
months in prison because they said they were ‘ Turks’(20).

For
centuries, as the land of Western Europe and especially Western Thrace is very

productive, many tribes have poured into the area. Due to this productivity
Western Thrace has changed hands many times throughout the centuries. However it
is the Turks who have lived and developed the area the longest .Today if we take
into account the Turks living in Western Thrace, we will see that the Turks have
lived on these lands continually for about 2100 years. (21)

Greece, as it does
everywhere and claiming that the whole world is of the ‘Hellenic ‘ race, also
rejects the ethnic identity of the Turks of Western Thrace, and claims that
there is a ‘’Muslim Minority’’ as stated in the
Lausanne Agreement . However, the title
of the migration agreement, signed in addition to the treaty is ‘The Exchange of
the Turkish and Greekpopulation’’.Furthermore,
the report prepared by the League of Nations (22) (the United Nations of the
period) on 5th March 1925 in
Genève is entitled ‘’ Minority in Western Thrace of Turkish Race ‘’ (23)

Turkish states
founded in western Thrace

With a surface area
of 15.000 km2 the population dispersion in Western Thrace in 1910 was
as follows. 325.000 Turkish, 56.000 Bulgarian, 30.000 Greek, 11.000 Muslim
Gagavuzian (Gagavuz) Turks, 3.500 Jewish, 4.000 Romanies, 1.600 of whom were
Muslim and 850 Armenians, making a total of 430.350 people.

With this population
concentration the Turks first founded the Rodop Turkish “Hükümet-i Muvakkate
(24) (Temporary Government) in the town of Çirmen in 1878. Thisgovernment lasted for eight years till 1886.

Secondly on 31st August 1913 the
independent ‘Western Thrace (25) ‘State was founded. The Western Thrace
Independent State was first named غربی
تراقیا حكومت موقته‌سی in Ottoman script and pronounced “Garbî Trakya
Hükûmet-i Muvakkatesi (in modern Turkish this means Western Thrace Temporary
Government), it later became غربی تراقیا
حكومت مستقله‌سی, Garbî Trakya Hükûmet-i Müstakilesi (in today’s Turkish
Western ThraceIndependent Government). Nowadays it is described by some sectors as
‘’Western Thrace Turkish Republic’. The ‘’ Western Thrace Turkish Republic
‘’founded on 31st August 1913 is the firstRepublic in which the word Turkish is found. This Turkish Republic also
known as Garbi Trakya Müstakil Hükümet, (Western Thrace Independent Government)
was recognised by both Greece and Bulgaria.

The
National Anthem of the
Western Thrace Turkish Republic declared by Chief of General Staff Infantry
Division, Major Süleyman Askeri Bey in Dedeağaç on 3rd September 1913.

National Anthem of
the Western Thrace Turkish Republic

O Western Thracian child of Turkish descent how happy for you

You gave life to the national freedom fight with your blood

Noble Hero imprinted all around the universe

The nation stands in attention to this your national flag

Here where you stand is full of your illustrious martyrs

The enemy cannot harass the spirit of these honourable heroes’s

Illustrious martyrs enveloped in the flag of freedom

What a divine honour it is to be buried in ancestral land.

The wind of
freedom and liberty is blowing in the Land

The brave
fighters are overthrowing this awful slavery

We can never
turn back from this great National struggle

Even if armies
of steel challenge us we will not be scared!

We have
crossed Meriç and Karasu for national liberty (TN)

We have
reached our goal by crushing all armies

We have opened
a great path to a Republic in the Balkans

For the first
time it was us who lit the torch of freedom

This flag will
fly, this Republic will live!

The enemies
opposite us will be scared and run away from us!

We are the
grandchildren of a nation which has lived free for thousands of years

We are the
wolves of these steppes, the lions, and the eagle of the skies

The attack of
fighters is always like a storm

In war the
enemy faints at the grander of our majesty

Western Thrace
Republic will live, will live!

Nations will
be amazed at out progress

O, sweet
Western Thrace!..... See how at last you have been freed of slavery

O, enemies! ….
Don’t think this nation is tired from wars.

The
illustrious flag of the Republic will fly at all times over this land

All these
Western Thracians will live in freedom till doomsday

On 29th September 1913 in accordance with the
İstanbul Treaty signed between theOttoman State and Bulgaria, in return for Eastern Thrace and Edirne being
given to the
Ottoman State, Western Thrace was left to the Bulgarians. The ‘’Western Thrace
Temporary Government’’ disputed this situation and declared that it did not
recognise the treaty.

In the period which followed, The
Thrace Temporary Government set up its governance
organs in all its areas and founded a 30.000 strong defence force. The
governmentadministration declaring its independence, first of all set out its
borders, hung the symbol of the independent state, the moon and star, green and
white flag on all government offices and institutions, founded its 29,170 strong
army, prepared its budget, printed postage stamps and started passport
formalities. In the meantime, accepting the Ottoman charter the Garabi Thrace
court of justice started to rule on cases. Emanuel Karasu (Carasso) a
Jew born in Salonica, set up a news agency and a
newspaper named Müstakil-Indépendant was published in both French and
Turkish.

Following these developments Bulgaria started to mass in the area.
However, in those days The Ottoman State, with foreign pressure did not look
favourably upon the newly formed Republic. In addition to this the political
fighting and chaos in İstanbul eradicated the chance of dealing with an
independent state in Western Thrace. Due to this the government of Sadrazam Sait
Halim Paşa provided for the emptying of the area by putting pressure on the Western
Thrace Temporary Government. Finally, with the signing of the İstanbul Treaty on
29th October 1913, the Ottoman State left the whole of Western Thrace to
Bulgaria.

On 30th October 1913 under the
command of General Lazarof the lands of the ‘Western Thrace Independent
Government ‘are completely occupied and this Government comes to an end.In this way the struggle for freedom which had started with great hopes
during the first days of August 1913, ended just three months later in October
with bitter disappointment.These
lands where Turks were in the majority, and which had been under Turkishadministration for hundreds of years, like Macedonia were left outside
the boundaries.

The
Ottoman State made its last treaty in relation to the Balkan War with Serbia on
13th March 1914. As there were no longer any common borders more emphasis was
given to the situation of the Turks in Serbia and the ‘’Western Thrace Temporary
Government’’ was founded. However it only lasted for 3 months.

This big fight which started in
October 1912, later with the participation of Romaniaaffected the whole of the Balkans, ended in August 1913, which is a
period as short as 10 months.From
the outcome of this great fight Greece took the biggest part of the spoils.

The gains from the sharing of the
Ottoman States, 5 Balkan States, Salonika Monastery, Kosovo, Yanya andİşkodra is as follows ;

Greece: 50.000 km2,
land and 1.600.000 population;

Serbia: 30.000 km2,
land and 1.200.00 population;

Bulgaria: 18.000 km2,
land and 1.000.000 population;

Karadağ: 5.000 km2’,
land and 150.000 population

Moreover, Albania declared
independence and added İşkodora to its lands. The other Balkan states whilst
sharing this great inheritance and literally swallowing Macedonia, the real
owners, the Macedonian people were not mentioned at all. The big nations made
the observation about the Aegean Islands: Italy would keep all the islands it
had occupied. Except for Meis, the rest except for İmroz and Bozcaada would stay
in Greece’s hands. However before this decision could be made legally binding,
the First World War broke out.

The ‘Western Thrace
Public Centre’ (26) founded under the auspices of the French on 15th October
1919 was destroyed on 23rd May 1920.

It is
very difficult to get hold of numbers of minority groups in Western Thrace.
Greece has always shied away from giving out this information.

According to the numbers given by
the Turkish delegation at the Lausanne
Peace
Conference the total population of Western Thrace in 1923 was 191.699. Of these
129.120(67%) Turks,
33.910 (18%) Greeks, the remaining 28.699 consisted of mainly Bulgarians with a
small number of Jews and Armenians. Therefore the Turks were in a majority of
four to one compared to the Greeks. (27)

Today
the situation is different. The total population of Western Thrace is 360.000.

As the
Greek authorities shy away from giving figures about minorities it is notpossible to give exact numbers for Turks living in Western Thrace.Despite this, around 120.000 – 150.000 (33 – 42%) are of Turkish origin.
This is an estimated figure. From these figures it can be seen that rather than
there being an increase in the Turkish population there is a decline.

According to the census of 1951 the number stating that their mother
tongue was
Turkish and that they were Muslim is almost twice as high. The population was
recorded as 7.632.801. Whilst 112.665 (1.4%) of the population stated they were
Muslim, 179.895 stated their mother tongue was Turkish. This equates to 2.4%.

Attempts to eradicate the Turkish
population in western Thrace

When
the Lausanne Agreement was signed in 1923, the Turkish population, including the
Pomak Turks was in comparison larger than the Greeks, Bulgarians, Armenians and
Jews. When the Treaty was signed the number of Turks in the area numbered about
129.120 and made up 67% of the total population, today it makes up 40% of the
population. Whilst it is known that the rate of increase in the Turkish
population is 2.8%, due to constant emigration the population has not increased
and has now been reduced to a minority in the area. (28)

Greece by engineering emigration
and assimilation polices has used the following

strategies to completely eradicate
the Muslim Turkish minority in Western Thrace.

- Laying the foundations for the
splitting up of the minority group by stating that the Turks, Pomaks and Gypsies
are not composed of a homogenous community.

- Weakening the links between
Turkey by emphasising and recognising religiousidentity rather than ethnic identity and therefore realising the aim
above.

- By encouraging
emigration through the prevention of economic development and by disrupting
social security and togetherness.

1- The problem of loss of land

Land property ownership in Western
Thrace has also dramatically changed. (29)According to records, in 1920, 86% of the movable and immovable property
belonged to the Turks, 7% belonged to the Bulgarians, 6% belonged to the Greeks
and the remaining 1% to others; as for animals and farm equipment 86% belonged
to the Turks, 8% to Bulgarians, 6% to Greeks. (30) The Turks who then owned 84%
of the land, today only own 20 to 4o % of the land.

Utilising the fact that Turks are
loyal to their land, Greek governments have usedvarious excuses to expropriate or have made it compulsory to combine
lands or have got possession of them using underhand methods in this way they
have estranged the Turks from the area. Alongside this policy they have in a co
coordinated way, by introducing certain policies, made it attractive for those
of Greek descent to want to buy up the land of the minority .If we look at the
agreement signed by Greek Central Bank and the Ziraat Bank (Agricultural Bank)
on 22nd November 1966 whereby it would encourage Greek citizens and
those of the Christian population to purchase land and farm land belonging to
Thracian Muslims’ it is very easy to understand the situation. In recent years
suitable and long term credit opportunities have been used to persuade people to
buy land belonging to the Turks. As well as this, after the break up of the
USSR, so called Pontus Greeks have been brought to the area to settle.

2- Expatriation

The most important
method used to dilute the Turkish minority is the 19th Article of Greek
Nationality Law which came into force in 1955. The law has been used to keep the
Turkish minority to an ‘acceptable ‘level. Due to this law the nationality of
around 60.000 Turks of Western Thrace was ended.

This practice uses the 19th Article
of the Nationality Law, (32) and is as follows:

‘Any person not of Greek descent
who leaves Greece, whether or not they intend to return can be stripped of their
Greek citizenship. This decision can also be applied to those born andliving abroad who are not of Greek decent .A child who is not of age,
living abroad and whose parents or the parent alive has had their citizenship
revoked may also have theircitizenship revoked.’ The Minister of the Interior makes the judgement if
the Citizenship Council takes such a decision.
The main aim of revoking the citizenship of citizens, who are non Greek
ethnically when they go abroad, is to reduce the Turkish population in Western
Thrace.

Thus due to this Article in 1988,
122, as of June 1990, 66, and in February 1991 544 Turks from Western Thrace had
their citizenships revoked without their knowledge or consent. The majority of
these citizens are students who had gone to Turkey, USA and Germany to study.
Despite this ruling the number of Turks who have had their citizenship revoked
is kept secret. (33) This Article used to revoke the citizenship of the Turks of
Western Thrace, by taking the ‘ethnic decent ‘of Greek citizens as criterion,
discriminates between ‘’those who are of Greek descent and those who are not
‘’Those who had their citizenships revoked in accordance with this Article, were
not given any notice and had their citizenships revoked by arbitrary decisions.These citizens found out about the ruling at the border and were not even
given permission to enter Greece to appeal against the decision. It is estimated
that around 60.000 Turks have had their Greek citizenship revoked in this way.

Even
though on 11th June 1998, the Citizenship Law’s 19th Article was lifted by a
law, as no provision was made for the return of the 60.000 Turks of Western
Thrace they are still without a nation. The 19th article has been lifted,
however its negative and discriminatoryeffects will mean the Turks of Western Thrace will experience the
negative effects of it for many years to come.

3- Forbidden zone implementation

Starting from 1936 till recent years a quarter of the Turks of Western Thrace
were forced to livein the region
declared ‘ Forbidden Zone ‘ by Greece in İskeçe andGümülcine on the northern border of Bulgaria . (34) (Picture 1). The
majority of the Turks in the ‘forbidden zone’ are Pomak Turks and have been
forced to live under heavy pressure from the police and army. (36) To gain entry
and exit to Pomak villages a special document is needed.

Another important example of the
Greeks attempts to assimilate minorities, is the

‘Forbidden
Zone’’ policy, which although lifted in 1995, shows the mentality of the Greeks
towards ethnic minorities, in not allowing minorities the right to survive and
to limit their thinking. However, alongside this policy, implemented in order to
break up the Turkishminority of Western Thrace, the policy of denying that the minority
living in the mountainous areas are not Turks continues.

The Minister of Defence at the time
Arsenis, announced during his visit to Western Thrace in 1995 that the military
no go zone was to be lifted. Even though the military control points were to be
lifted, and Greek citizens living outside the area would no longer need
permission to enter or leave the area, Arsenis however did not follow this
announcement with the necessary legal order. It is still necessary for non -
Greek citizens to get permission to enter, from the local security forces.

The forbidden zone implementation
was actualised with the aim of not only leaving the Turks of Western Thrace
without information from each other but also alienating them from each other.
The minority known as the Pomak Turks, lived in the area declared a forbidden
area in 1936, and the aforementioned long lasting prohibition meant that they
formed closer links with the small number of Bulgarians living in the area, and
the Bulgarians living on the other side of the border.During the 59 years the prohibition continued the Pomaks were socially
and culturally affected by the Bulgarians and therefore alienation occurred.

Whilst after pressure from the EU
in lifting the forbidden zone implementation an alternative method of dividing
the Turks from within was implemented. The aim of the Government was to reduce
to a minimum the numbers of those who felt Turkish and those regarded as Turkish
and thereby initiating nationalism and division between them in the future.

Greece’s activities in accordance
with the policy of spoiling the solidarity between the Turks of Western Thrace
include the claim that the Pomaks are ‘Muslims of Greek origin’ and use
propaganda campaigns to prove this. It has been discovered that Konstantin
Mitçotakis in 1991, for the first time used the terminology ‘The Muslim Minority
in Western Thrace ‘’, ‘’ Pomaks and Gypsies of Turkish descent ‘’. (37) Efforts
in the same vein saw the production of a ‘Reading Book’ with a Pomak Alphabet on
12th June in Athens after a presentation. (38) This was followed with the launch
of a newspaper named Zagalisa in 1998.

The announcement by the Greek Corps
Commander‘’ we undertake the
mission of the Pomaks ‘’ is without doubt very important. During his speech the
officer calling the Pomaks‘ Helen
Pomaks ‘ said that the Pomak language would be promoted to University status,
and that they were alsoconsidering
the creation ofa university professorship as well. The commander continued by stating
that work had started on a Pomak dictionary and grammar, as well as this he said
that the Pomak language should be taught at the Academy of Education in Salonika
and added that such activities would not affect the activities of the army.
Whilst speaking at another meeting in Şapçı in 1998, the District General
Secretary of East Macedonia and Thrace, Stavros Kabelidis, stated that a 10 year
plan was needed in order for the development of the area and in the video
prepared by DesinePantazi ,
entitled‘ Pomaks of Thrace’ it is
said that the Pomak Turks in the Easternarea of Thrace had been forced into Islam, whereas their lifestyle
included such actions that were more the style of Christians, and in accordance
with the Lausanne Agreement
these villages should be educated in Pomak. ( 39 )

Once again due to
these policies followed by Greece which are contradictory to thepolicy of emphasising the existence of minorities and ethnic identity, it
has been proved that the primary aim of the policy followed is aimed at dividing
the Turkish minority. Greece in accordance to a strategy determined after 1995,
as well as putting great pressure on the Pomak Turks in terms of culture and
starting moves to change history, attempted to prove that the Pomak Turks were
from a separate race and so that the Pomaks would believe this went as far as
giving government support for the publishing of the Pomak alphabet and
newspaper. They also do not shy away from using other persuasive methods, such
as improving living standards and utilising EU funds for the Pomaks who describe
themselves as Turks. The mostinteresting development in terms of Greek policy is the closing of
organisations with the word Turk in their names, not giving permission for new
ones to be founded, but the founding by the Government of the Hronos Pomak
Society in İskeçe. Firstly whereas it is clearlydiscrimination that whilst associations with ‘Turk’ ,’ Macedonia’ and
‘Minority’ in their names are being closed down, associations where the word
‘Pomak’ is found are getting high level support, more importantly the fact that
the Forbidden Zone implementation is continuing is moreimportant

The Greek Government
acting on the knowledge that their long term aim of banning the word ‘Turk’
would not be able to be continued for much longer, due to the norms of the EU,
has since the 1923
Lausanne Agreement been referring to the
minority as ‘Muslim’ and has put forward that the Muslim minority is not all
Turkish but is made up of Turks, Gypsies and Pomaks.

Pomak
settlement in western Thrace

Starting in the 15th Century the Anatolian Nomads came to the Balkans
in droves and bonded with the
"Kıpczak-Kuman Turks’ who had arrived there hundreds of years previously. When
Aydınoğlu Gazi Umur Bey started the conquest of Thrace the noble Turkish
groups, volunteered to take on the duty of outpost and advanced guard.

The
nomads who came in waves to Western Thraceunder the guidance of Süleyman Paşa, Timurtaş Paşa, Lala Şahin Paşa,
Doğan Bey, Hacı İlbey, Evranos Bey, Deli Balaban Bey ve Akçakocaoğlu were helped
by the Pomak Turks who were already there to settle and gave them
monetary and moral support.

The
term ‘’Pomak’’ only started to be seen in Balkan and Western sources in the
1830s. This word used as an adjective was given to the Pomak Turks, part of the
areas Turks, by the Balkan Slovak people of the area. In the Balkan Slovak
dialect it means ‘Helper’.

The
term which in the Slovak dialect is pronounced ‘’pomağa’’ and ‘’pomagadic’’ over
time started to be pronounced ‘’pomak’’. The source for the giving of the word
as a name to the Turks of the area is the fact the Anatolian nomads who had been
coming to the Ottoman Balkans to settle in droves in the 14th Century
and were helped by these Kıpczak – Cuman
groups.

The
science of history science shows that the Pomak Turks are the grandchildren of
the Cuman (41) Turks who settled in the area from Rodop in the 11th
Century. The Pomak Turks carry all the characteristics, language, hand crafts,
dress and folkloric characteristics and still live in the same way as the Middle
Asia Turks.

Despite
all of these facts, Greece has never given up its endeavours to divide thePomak Turks from other Turks and declare them as having Greek ancestry.
Manypropaganda books on this
subject are being written claiming that the Pomak Turks were“forcibly converted Greek Thracians” and “Muslims of Hellenic ancestry”.

4- the prevention of the political
rights of the minority

Parallel to Turco-Greek relations,
since 1999 changes in the attitude towards theWestern Thrace Turkish Minority (W T T M) have begun to be seen.However, despite this change it is not possible to say that the
administration has changed in its attitude or is more favourable towards the
WTTM in terms of bringing them up to the same status in bilateral agreements and
international treaties, having a say in traditional organs or finding acomprehensive solution for the problems of minorities in education.

YetThe WTTM’ s steps in fighting for their rights is really because of the
Greek administrations discriminatory practices in not allowing citizenship
rights in other words it is linked to their fundamental rights and freedoms .

The restrictions
faced by the WTTM, with regards to elect and be elected rights also restricts
the possibility of the minority when it comes to taking the problems to Greek
politics.A change in the election
laws in 1990, so that the threshold for election is 3%nationwide (to reach the threshold 200 thousand votes are needed) and the
implementation also being valid for independent candidates, means that the WTTM
has literally had the chance of forming a party or having an independent
representative in the Greek Parliament taken way from them. In this way for
members of the WTTM to be elected as members of parliament they need to be
nominated as candidates by other parties.

The Greek Governments
implementation in recent years of a step in regards to the right to elect and be
elected, is aimed at the prevention of minorities getting into the Greek
Parliament is a new step one
which is very striking. In order to
split possible uniting of votes by minorities the Greek government has started a
geographical order. To reduce the political effectiveness of minorities, the Law
in question, known as the Kapodistrias Plan, has united the provinces,
municipalities and sub districts. By changing the boundaries of the polling
stations and changing the election districts of the areas where Turks live, on
paper, they have created super provinces, and because these areas, where there
is a high concentration of Turks, were divided between districts with a higher
number and concentration of Greeks, the opportunity of completely combining the
votes of the Turkish minority was avoided, thereby the opportunity of Turks
being elected to parliament was prevented. With the ‘Kapodistrias Plan’, Athens,
in order to keep the Turks as a minority permanently, have incorporated the
Turkish minority into Greek towns, reduces the municipalities from 7 big ones to
3 even bigger ones. In this way, by founding widened district provinces they
prevented the chance of the Turks governing themselves by electing their own
Governor. (42)

5- The prevention of
the right to associate

The intensified
suppression policy started during the Coup (of the Colonels), continued after
1974 with the closing down of all civil society organisation containing the word’Turk ‘and continued with the word ‘’Turk’’ being erased from school
signs. (43). Associations such as the Western Thrace Turkish Teachers
Association, the Gümülcine Turkish Youth Association
and the İskeçe were closed because the
word ‘Turk’ in was aimed at creating minorities.

Associations like the
Thrace Turkish Teachers Association, the Gümülcine Turkish Youth Association and
the İskeçe Turkish Association were closed down as it was said they were
intending to create minorities. Also permission was not granted for the
foundation of the District of Rodop Turkish Women’s Culture Association, because
it contained the word‘Turk’. The newest and most interesting ruling on this matter is the
appeal case (44) which has continued since 2003 when the case was brought by the
Evros (Meriç) Minority Youth Association whose application for recognition had
been rejected. The Court of Appeal, after it reiterated the official state line
that ‘there were Greek citizens in Thrace who were of the Muslim religion’,
rejected the appeal on the grounds that the name was illegal (45)and that
‘Minority Youth’, had not been used in a way which was clear and did not give
rise for suspicion, because the confusion as to whether the name represented a
religious or ethnic identity was contrary to public order. (46) The Court of
Appeal did not only reject the application for registration, it also set a
precedent against Minorities, that any minority term used in the name of an
Association without a clear definition could ‘hide offences’.

Following a law suit brought against Greece in 2005, by The Iskeçe Turkish
Association because it had the name Turk in it, and as it refused permission for
the Rodop Turkish Women’s CulturalOrganisation to be formed for the same reason, The ECHR on 27th
March 2008 came to the decision that Greece had violated the ‘’right to
associate and formassociations’’ when it banned the groups.

The law suit which was brought after Galip Galip and the other seven people
applied to the ECHR, against the closure of The Iskeçe Turkish Association and
the Western Thrace Minority Higher Education Association, had lasted more than
21 years. Due to this the court ruled that Greece ‘had not fairly executed
justice in a reasonable time’ and had therefore violated the rights of the
associations and fined Greece 8.000 Euros as damages.

“The
Lausanne Peace Agreement does not recognises that in Western Thrace there is aTurkish minority but rather a Muslim Minority’’ and that “ due to thenationality of the
associations founders the public could be influenced in the wrong way” the suit
against Greece brought by Hülya Emin and six other people at the ECHR ruled that
in the Eminet al case the
persons who had applied to the court had had their damages issuesaddressed that they were satisfied that“ justice had been served” and therefore there was no need for
compensation.

Greek Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyanni announced that Greece would appeal against
the decision of the ECHR in the unanimous decision they took in the ‘’ Iskeçe
Turkish
Association v Greece " (application No: 26698 /05) and "Emin et al v. Greece”
(application No.34144/05) cases, that Greece had violated the ‘’right to
associate and form associations’’ when it closed down the groups.

During a press conference on 19th June 2008, Bakoyanni was asked
‘’Exactly what had been discussed on the issue of minorities in the dialogue
between Ankara and Athens during talks about the complications over the issue of
minorities’’, to which she answered ‘’ that the subject of the protection of
human rights was no longer on the agenda because respectfor minority rights and the formation of related policies is the duty of
all democraticgovernments’’. Foreign Minister Bakoyanni stating that this decision had
been taken after much deliberation but did not give any information about
exactly which Article the Greek state was to appeal against.

Speaking at the press meeting Bakoyanni said that Greece was carrying out its
duties as regards the Muslim minority of Thrace. By saying that Greece was
respectful to equal rights and in the face of the law, was not only carrying out
its duties but deepening them too, however whenever issues regarding the Muslim
minority was brought up they faced problems due to Turkeys own policies, and in
doing so she indicated that the problems were still continuing and that they
would continue because of the Greek government.

The decision by the Greek Government to take the court decision of the ECHR to
appeal naturally caused amazement in the Western Thrace Turkish Minority, in the
EU and in Turkey. In the rightful struggle of the Western Thrace Turkish
Minority, the ‘’Minority’’ was found to be justified and Greece was convicted.
The decision given by the ECHR literally ordered that freedom to assemble and
forming of associations could in no way be prevented.

The Law Suits dealing with this issue were opened in 2005 by the İskeçe TurkishAssociation and by The Rodop Area Turkish Women’s Cultural Society. The
court was of the opinion that Greece with its decision to close down the
Associations of Greece’s minorities was in breach of the 11th Article
of the European Human Rights Agreement.

The İskeçe Turkish Association was founded in 1927 and after functioning under
this name till 1983, claiming that they were carrying out Turkish identity
propaganda and
claiming that this was not in accordance with the Lausanne Treaty, the Greek
authorities took them to court. The Association ,which in the 60 years sinceit has been formed had carried out itsactivities lawfully, in 1986 , with the decision of the İskeçe Court was
ordered to close ,as the Governor
of İskeçe claimed that ‘’ there are no Turks in Western Thrace’’.

The İskeçe Turkish Association had taken the case to the ECHR after around 20
years ofstruggle in the
internal courts resulted in a ruling against them

The European Court of Human Rights in its decision in this matter decreed, that
the closing down of an Association just because it uses the term Turk is an
unnecessary practice in a democratic community.It announced that, even if the Association did claim that there was an
ethnic minority in Greece, that on its own, this was not on its own a threat for
a democratic community.

It was decreed that in closing the Association Greece had violated the related
Articles of the European Human Rights Convention, which allows for freedom of
assembly and association and fair trial. It was decreed that Athens pay the
Association which had been closed 8 thousand Euros in compensation.

In the other case, it refused Athens argument that ‘there are no ethnic
minorities in Greece only religious minorities’. The court came to the
conclusion that the refusal of the court in 2001 to register the Turkish Women’s
Cultural Association because it had Turk in its name, contravened the European
Human Rights Conventions, right to freedom of assembly and association.

This decision in accordance with the European Council standards, carries with it
direct sanctions. Under normal standards Greece should revise its Laws and allow
for the formation of Associations with the name Turk in them. The European
Council Committee of Ministers is responsible for the implementation of this
decision and the path it follows will determine the future and will create
stability in the area. No matter what happens the ECHR will not change the
decision they took regarding associations with the name ‘Turk’ in them.

With the announcement on this issue the head of the Western Thrace
Turkish Federation (WTTA) Halit Habiboğlu by
saying ‘’ the just struggle the Minority
has been staging for many years has been strengthened by the ruling of the ECHR.
It is difficult to understand why our country Greece has taken the decision to
appeal despite the fact that the courts Greek members also voted in favour of
this decision. Greece is determined to see the Minority which is bound to its
country with loyalty as a threat. In relation to Minority rights in my heart
neither did we want to take the case to the ECH nor did we wish that our country
Greece would appeal the decision. It is the aim of the minority to establish
dialogue between the majority and minority. The real aim of the minority is to
establish this for our country on a democratic platform. However due to the
Greek state and the Governments politics the minority has been forced to defend
its rights outside of its own country. We have complete faith that the decision
by the ECHR will not change. The minority has the right to form associations
with the name ‘Turk’ in them , and this will not change’’ has enunciated
that the Turkish Minority living in area wish to live on Western Thrace soil in
friendship with the Greek Government.

On the other hand, in 2005 after the Greek High Court upheld the decisionofthe lower courts in 2001
not to allow the formation of the ‘Rodop Turkish Women’s Cultural Association’
because of the word Turk the case was taken to the ECHRafter being ratified by Arios Pagos.

In the meantime the Rodop Governor had for the same reason had taken The
Gümülcine Turkish Youth Association and the Western Thrace Turkish Teachers
Association to court in order to have them closed down. After a long court
battle with the decision to close the associations of the lower court being
ratified by the High Court, in 1988, all signs with the word ‘Turk’ in them were
torn down and the activities of the associations stopped.

It became clear that all the problems were reaching the same result, and
that the biggest problem of the Turks of Western Thrace was the fact that they
were unable to get their ‘identity’ to be recognised.In Western Thrace official departments were defining the Turks as ‘Greek
Muslims’ and the prohibition against the associations was in fact the result of
the policy of denying that ‘Turk’ is an
identity.

6. Restrictions in
the right to education

The Western Thrace Turkish community which according to the Lausanne Treaty had
the right to found its own educational establishments and appoint its own
teachers is today face to face with provisions which will ‘leave them
uneducated’. The Western Thrace minority schools were not the property of the
Greek state. The schools were administered by elected committees, and the
salaries of the teachers were paid by the parents. An end has been put to this
and by slowly and methodically transferring the schools to the property of the
Greek state, by lowering the standards of education, the students are faced with
the situation of not being able to learn Turkish.

The restrictions in bringing teachers and Turkish books on education from
Turkey, insufficient quality of teaching, the implementation of a thousand to 5
limit for Turks for entry to university, and despite this not recognising the
parity of diplomas received from Turkey, and despite it being compulsory to go
to nursery school, not giving permission for Turks to open nursery schools which
are of vital importance, are today being experienced in a very explicit way.
(47)

As well as the problems explained
under the main headings, problems such as , the prevention of Foundation
administrators being elected and appointed and having the right to own land and
being appointed directly by the
Greek authorities; the fact that the Head Müftü position to deal with matters of
religion and conscience is still empty, the fact that the Müftüs elected by the
Muslim Turks is not appointed by the Orthodox Governor , are a few of the other
practices which are every day
pushing to the limit the patience and endurance of the Turks

At the start of the 90s, the Greek Justice Minster
Athanassios Kanelopulos, by saying in a statement
published by the “Cumhuriyet”
(Republic) newspaper on 7th June 1990, that there were 150.000 Greek
citizens who were members of the Islamic religionliving in Western Thrace, for the first time gave a clue about the
distribution of population during those years. Today’s Turkish minority
population brings into the open one truth. That the number of Turks living in
these areas should be around 235,958 when
compared to the Greek population increase curve, and 667,784, when compared to
the Turkish population increase curve, but that however, due to assimilation and
the result of emigrations this number has fallen to around the 120.000 mark.

Today’s concentration of the
Turkish population is in İskeçe, Central Gümülcine and the forest villages
around these cities. Due to assimilation policies the number of Turks found
around the Dedeağaç region, is so small that it is hardly worth noting. It is
estimated that today around 150.00 Turks live in Greece and make up 1.5% of the
general population. The Turks live mainly in Gümülcine,
İskeçe and Dedeağaç. As well as this there are many Turks living in
Dimotoka and Sofu.

A certain number of
Turks living outside of Western Thrace in Rhodes and the 12 Isles can be found.
Other than this in the Western Thrace area of Rodop there are around 40.000
Turks.

When carefully
studied, the census results for Greece and Turkey show that there is a birth
rate percentage for both countries, and that when the present population
increase curve is applied to Western Thrace the results of the inhuman policies,
in politics and the pressures encountered in every area of life can be seen.

Whilst a certain increase in birth
rate can be seen in all areas of Greece, there have been dramatic reductions in
the population of the Turks of Western Thrace. No one living a happy free life
will leave the lands they are living on. However in Western Thrace due to the
Greek Governments relentless inhuman policies, the opposite has happened.

Results of the 1821- 2007 censuses
in Greece . (48)

1821

938,765

1848

986,731

1940

7,344,860

1828

753,400

1853

1,035,527

1951

7,632,801

1834

693,592

1856

1,062,627

1961

8,388,553

1838

752,077

1861

1,096,810

1971

8,768,641

1840

850,246

1870

1,457,894

1981

9,740,417

1841

861,019

1879

1,679,470

1991

10,258,364

1842

853,005

1889

2,433,806

2001

10,964,020

1843

915,059

1907

2,631,952

2005

11,244,118

1844

930,925

1920

5,531,474

2007

11,338,624

1845

960,236

1928

6,204,684

Due to sudden change in population
numbers in Turkey and Greece in 1923 – 4 and in 1925, due to a mutual exchange
of population, the population increase curve in both countries has been
established with information gained after 1925.

1928 – 2007 Greece census results
and population increase curve

Results of the 1927 –
2007

Censuses in Turkey
(48)

1927

13,648,270

1970

35,605,176

1935

16,158,018

1975

40,347,719

1940

17,820,950

1980

44,736,957

1945

18,790,174

1985

50,664,458

1950

20,947,188

1990

56,473,035

1955

24,064,763

1997

62,865,574

1960

27,754,820

2000

67,803,927

1965

31,391,421

2007

70,586,256

1928 – 2007 Turkey census results and

population increase curve

Even though the
population increase curve for Turkey and Greece is not parallel it still shows a
tendency for increase.

The population of
Greece which was 6.204.684 in 1928 increased to 11.338.624 in 2007, an
increase of 5.133.940 or eighty two percent in 79 years and the birth-rate
percentage was about 1.03.

The population of
Turkey which was 13.648.270 in 1927 increased to 70.586.256 in 2007, an
increase in 80 years of 56.937.986 or a hundred and seven percent increase with
a birth-rate of 5.21 percent.

The population
increase of the Turks of Western Thrace is not parallel to either the general
82% increase in Greece, or the 417% increase in Turkey. The inhuman practices of
the Greek government for years and because, despite being in the EU, the clear
infringement of human rights has meant that instead of an increase in population
there has been a decrease.

If the 129.120 Turks
living in Western Thrace had been able to live a normal life free from pressure,
they would have at the least had a population increase parallel to that of
Greece and their numbers today should be 235.958.

If they had been able
to continue their lives in a Turkish style of living and family makeup, the
population increase graph should be parallel to that of Turkey’s populationincrease and therefore the population today should be 667.784.

Comparitive
population increase curve for western Thrace Turks

The table above shows
the population increase of Turks in Western Thrace between 1910 – 2007 with the
population increase in Turkey and Greece, parallel to what thepopulation should be today.

The pressures and
inhuman treatment that our Western Thrace Brethren have been subjected to, the
genocide they have encountered, their being ousted from the Greek Parliament,
the ‘Forbidden Zone’ implementation declared in 1936, which literally sentenced
them to live in an open air prison, and restrictions regarding property, can
clearly be seen as‘forced
emigration ‘’ and ‘’withdrawal of citizenship ‘’.The population which should
have shown an increase in the last 80 years has in fact shown the complete
opposite, a decrease of 8%.

In conclusion despite
years of attempts to assimilate them, depriving them of theirbasic human rights and freedoms, they have managed to protect their
national solidarity and culture, and despite the fact that Greece is a member of
the EU the Western Thrace Turkish minority is still in danger and has many
difficult days ahead of them. One of the three main principles upon which the
European Union has been built, human rights, has unfortunately not become a
reality for the Turks. Including EU human rights, it can be argued how muchimportance the E U has given to minority rights, but it is crystal clear
what Greece’s attitude towards the Turkish minority is.

According the
‘forbidden zone’ law brough out in 1936, an area 10 – 25 km deep along western
Thraces border with Bulgaria, was declared a ‘forbidden zone’. The 35 -40
thousand Turks living in 133 villages in this area had their travel and social
activities controlled by the Greek authorities who restricted all activities and
turned the area, literally into a prison camp. Entry into or out of the
forbidden area was by a special document.